Playing with Light and Darkness [Rf Photo of the Day]

Photo © Peter Prato

When Bradford asked if his friend, California-based photographer Peter Prato, would make a new headshot for him, Prato said, “Of course,” so long as he could also do some experimentation.

Captured in a tight office space with no windows, Prato recalls there wasn’t much room to set up lots of equipment and shoot. He took advantage of the dark space by making it even darker, setting up a grey fabric backdrop. To light Bradford, Prato used a Profoto B1 as a key light and a Calumet 750 as a background light, both with colored gels.

“I knew I wanted a combination of crisp edges and blurred movement,” the photographer says. “I handheld my camera, which was set to bulb mode, fired the shutter and the lights, and then, holding the shutter open, I manually fired the lights again after intentional movement.” The motion created the streak of light seen radiating off the subject’s glasses. “That was a nice surprise,” Prato adds, “and I played with that until I got a composition and expression I liked.”

(Captured with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 lens.)

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